SAMANTHA EVERTON

INDOCHINE

Samantha Everton (1971) living and working in Melbourne, Australia.

Her work is tightly choreographed and the photographs create visual narratives that have profound cross-cultural, sociological and psychological implications. the artist’s vivid style, described as ‘magic realism’, has a cinematic and surreal quality that pushes her subjects further and further from reality.

Everton’s talent is to reveal what lies hidden, and in the portraits can be found fragility and adaptability, vulnerability and resilience, compliance and resolute self-expression. they inhabit an uncanny world that is at once familiar and foreign, real and symbolic, and it feels as though our forgotten dreams have been projected into the picture plane. the unerring integrity of Everton’s photographic processes and her masterful technical ability have been internationally acclaimed and extensively awarded.

‘Indochine’ depicts a woman navigating the conflicting cultural pressures of the east and the west. exuding visual luxury and vivid sensuality, the artworks plunge the viewer into a colour-saturated dreamscape. the series explores the encroachment of western fashion within Asian cultures and the struggle for authenticity amidst contemporary influences.

‘There is one woman taking on a chameleon-like appearance throughout this series of work. the protagonist of ‘Indochine’ is literally morphing and adapting herself to each environment. how much we keep or let go of in our environment is a decision we as individual women make every day. these images enlarge those conflicts on a grand scale and tell the same story at the level of a nation, which must also form its own identity over a much longer timescale.